The City of Pickering and the Town of Ajax, which had started a request for proposal (RFP) process for the sale of their 49.708 per cent shareholding in utility provider Elexicon, have notified that they will not go ahead with the sale – for now.
“On July 18, 2025, Pickering notified Elexicon and the other shareholder representatives that the city had concluded the process started by the RFP and ‘has decided not to proceed with a sale at this time and has formally terminated the RFP process’. Ajax provided similar notification,” says a document released by The Municipality of Clarington, which too is a shareholder.
Elexicon Corporation is a holding company that is owned jointly by five municipal shareholders as follows:
Elexicon Energy is a fully owned subsidiary of Elexicon. It is a rate regulated electricity distribution company that delivers electricity to over 180,000 customers throughout ten municipalities in Ontario including to Ajax, Brock, Clarington, Pickering, Scugog, Uxbridge and Whitby in Durham as well as to Port Hope, Belleville and Gravenhurst.
Elexicon was formed in 2019 through the merger of Veridian and Whitby Hydro and assumed the same operating territory as its predecessor organizations.
Potential Sale of Shares
Following the merger in April 2019, shareholders were not able to transact their shares for 18 months. Since that time there have been several potential shareholder transactions contemplated, said the document.
Pickering started exploring sale options on October 31, 2021, when it approved report FIN 15-21 ‘City Centre
Financial and Legal Implications’. The city expressed an interest to sell its shares as a way to partially fund the City Centre project. In 2022, the City of Pickering indicated that it was no longer pursuing a sale of its
shares.
Pickering and Ajax RFPs: On July 3, 2024, Pickering and Ajax issued a joint statement that they had jointly retained Borden Ladner Gervais LLP to undertake a non-binding request for proposal to explore the potential sale of their combined share ownership in Elexicon Corporation.
According to the Unanimous Shareholders’ Agreement, the non-selling shareholders have the right of first refusal at the same price, terms and conditions of any potential sale.
Further, any sale for a controlling share (more than 50 per cent), the non-selling shareholders have the right to elect to also sell at the same terms, conditions and price (the ‘piggyback right’), the document said.
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Ajax, Pickering explore sale of their 49.7% stake in Elexicon
What are the dividends Elexicon is generating and why would the cities want to give up a long term revenue stream, especially if it is paying above average rates in the stock market?